Your Workspace, Your Way

August 5, 2014

Let’s talk about customization. When it comes down to it, we’re kind of strange, persnickety creatures. Many of us have a layout in our homes that suits us. Our toothbrushes have their own special spot. Anyone who has had a roommate will validate this. You will never realize how particular you are about your stuff until someone else messes it up. The same may be true for your software workspace layout. If you are sharing your copy of ACDSee with someone else, or if you just find that you like your panes laid out in a certain way, you may find it helpful to be able to save a custom workspace. Maybe it’s for efficiency, or maybe you just like it a certain way because it feels better. You’re entitled.

So, first you need to get things just how you like them. In Manage mode: You can do this by grabbing panes with your cursor and pulling, or clicking the drop-down arrow in the pane’s top right corner and selecting Floating.

Drag the pane’s title bar and hold your cursor over any of the arrows of the Docking Compass. What is a Docking Compass? Check out the arrows circled in red in the image below.

When the shaded marquee displays the position of the pane you want, release the mouse button.

To return a pane to its previous location, double-click its title bar.

You can resize a pane by holding your cursor over the edge of the pane until the cursor changes into arrows and lines. Drag the edge of the pane to the size you want.

You can also hide panes temporarily by clicking the drop-down arrow in the pane’s top right corner and selecting Hide.

To reveal it again, click View | [desired pane].

Once you have all of your panes the location and size that you want, it’s time to save your layout. Go to View | Workspaces | Manage Workspaces. In the Manage Workspaces dialog box, click Save Workspace. Give your workspace a name. I recommend putting something that identifies it as yours, if you’re sharing the application, or, if it’s a task-based layout, name it based on that. ex) “Cataloging Layout”. It will save you time if you choose a name that immediately tells you what the layout is.

Click OK, and click OK again.

To find a layout you’ve saved, go to View | Workspaces. Select the name of your layout.

If you realize you have moved the panes around to the point where you barely even recognize Manage mode anymore, and you really don’t like it, don’t panic.

You don’t have to remember where things go. You can return the panes to their default position at any time by going to View | Workspaces | Default Workspace.